I  'M-r~ 

i 


Pioneet  Series  —  No.  18 


Bishop  William  Taylor 

I— I—! — I — ^1— I"I — I — — I — I — I — 


Bishop  William  Taylor 

IN  AFRICA 

By  MRS.  O.  W.  SCOTT 


PRICE  TWO  CENTS 


Woman's  Foreign  M iss  ionary  Society  J 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  -i- 
Publication  Office,  -  Boston,  Mass,  jfc 


■H-H- 


Bishop  William  Taylor 

IN  AFRICA  . 


Memory  recalls  a  camp  ground  on  one  of  Pennsylvania’s  lofty  hills. 
It  is  evening  and  the  pine  knots  burning  in  large  iron  baskets  on  high 
standards  cast  a  bright  but  flickering  light  over  the  encampment.  In 
the  near-by  forest,  katy-dids  carry  on  their  endless  dispute.  On  the 
platform  many  ministers  are  sitting,  and  beside  the  desk  a  tall  man, 
rugged  in  form  and  feature,  is  talking.  Who  is  it?  It  is  William  Taylor, 
who,  at  General  Conference  of  1884  the  previous  May,  had  been  made 
Bishop  of  Africa.  The  crowd  listens  to  his  plain,  powerful  sermon  with 
intense  interest;  moved  to  smiles  or  tears  by  his  illustrations,  drawn 
’  not  from  one  country  alone  but  from  at  least  half  a  dozen.  But  how  did 
he  get  the  knowledge  which  made  a  boy  ask:  “Has  he  been  all  over  the 
world?” 

To  answer  this  question  we  must  go  back  to  old  Virginia,  where, 
in  Rockbridge  County,  on  May  2,  1821,  his  life  history  started.  As 

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a  little  boy  he  learned  to  love  God,  but  was  not  really  called  to  work  for 
Him  until  he  was  twenty.  Then  in  a  dream  one  night,  he  thought  he 
heard  a  minister  preach  and  sing,  who  said  to  him:  “William,  God  has  a 
special  work  for  you  to  do.’’  A  little  later  his  pastor  gave  him  a  license 
to  exhort  and  while  teaching  in  his  native  state  he  was  called  to  preach. 

Then  began  the  career,  which  we  can  barely  outline,  that  made 
William  Taylor,  not  “A  Man  Without  a  Country’’  but  a  man  with  many 
countries.  In  18/+8  he  and  his  good  wife  Anne  were  sent  to  California  as 
missionaries,  for  the  California  of  that  day  was  full  of  adventurers  — 
wild  and  restless  seekers  for  gold.  For  seven  years  he  labored  there 
with  much  success.  Then,  after  an  interval  spent  in  eastern  states  and 
Canada,  he  went  to  Australia,  where  large  numbers  were  added  to  the 
church. 

Three  years  there,  one  in  South  Africa,  and  then,  leaving  his  family 
in  California,  seven  most  fruitful  years  in  India  —  where  he  started 
churches  on  the  self-supporting  plan,  — and  we  find  our  evangelist  in 
South  America,  still  carrying  out  his  original  methods  of  work. 

Those  who  care  for  a  history  of  those  busy  and  wonderfully  success¬ 
ful  years,  will  find  it  in  his  own  books,  seven  of  which  he  wrote,  and  from 
whose  sales  Mr.  Taylor  was  able  to  support  his  family  and  aid  his 
missions. 

And  now  we  come  to  the  crowning  event  of  his  life,  —  his  election 

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as  Bishop  of  Africa.  He  was  a  member  of  the  General  Conference  of 
1884,  at  which  Africa  as  a  mission  field  was  discussed.  Up  to  this  time 
the  Methodist  Church  had  not  a  single  station  in  a  heathen  tribe  except 
a  small  one  in  Krootown,  Monrovia,  in  charge  of  Mary  Sharp.  Two 
negro  Bishops,  Roberts  and  Burns,  had  been  sent  out,  and  two  American 
Bishops  had  visited  the  country,  but  the  ship  had  been  kept  at  anchor 
that  they  might  not  risk  their  lives  for  a  single  night  on  shore.  Mr. 
Taylor  ventures  to  suggest  that  if  he  were  planning  to  kill  Bishops  he 
would  advise  them  to  spend  their  nights  in  that  way —  in  the  deadly 
climate,  in  the  lower  strata  of  malaria;  but  if  they  wished  to  preserve 
life,  let  them  go  directly  to  the  highlands  “eat  where  they  labor,  and 
sleep  where  they  eat.”  At  that  time  he  had  no  idea  that  he  would  have 
to  swallow  the  pill  he  had  prescribed  for  others. 

When  the  election  of  Bishop  for  Africa  came  before  the  Con¬ 
ference,  he  was  elected  by  a  vote  of  250  to  44',  and,  knowing  his  views  on 
self-support,  etc.  the  verdict  was  “Turn  him  loose  in  Africa.” 

This  election  brought  with  it  a  two  fold  responsibility,  first,  to  ad¬ 
minister  for  the  Missionary  Society  in  Liberia;  second,  to  found  missions 
on  his  self  supporting  plan  anywhere  in  the  continent. 

Connected  with  self-support  he  would  have  industries,  such  as  were 
necessary  to  civilized  life  anywhere  and  also,  wherever  they  could  have 
a  competent  matron,  he  would  establish  nursery  missions  that  little 

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children  might  be  trained  as  Christians  before  they  became  heathen. 
As  he  said:  “Children  are  never  heathen,  they  are  God’s  little  lambs.’’ 

It  was  thought  that  he  could  not  get  missionaries  to  go  on  the  “no 
salary”  plan,  but  he  soon  had  a  company  of  about  forty  men,  women  and 
children,  eager  to  follow  him. 

Instead  of  entering  Africa  at  points  that  had  been  fatal  to  white 
men,  he  took  his  party  inland  from  St.  Paul  de  Loanda,  which  he  reached 
in  March  1885,  making  a  line  of  six  stations  in  Angola,  each  having  a 
family  or  small  company  as  nucleus.  Suffering  and  privation  came  to 
these  pioneers,  but  most  of  them  proved  their  Christian  courage  by 
holding  the  ground,  even  to  learning  the  difficult  Kimbundu  language 
which  the  Bishop  declared  “was  picked  from  between  the  teeth  of  the 
natives.” 

It  was  difficult  to  establish  the  nursery  mission,  for  little  girls 
were  held  as  property  to  be  bought  and  sold  at  the  father’s  pleasure. 
But,  in  due  time,  children  were  brought  to  them,  mostly  orphans. 

One  day  a  big  native  brought  a  three  year  old  girl  on  his  shoulder. 
She  was  covered  with  fresh  marks  of  small  pox  and  the  man  said  the 
mother  had  died  at  Loanda  about  three  months  before  and  had  asked 
him  to  take  her  to  the  missionaries  at  Malange  —  800  miles  journey. 
On  the  way  she  had  small  pox  and  “I  nursed  her  for  a  whole  moon,  so 
today  I  put  her  in  your  care.” 


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A  little  girl  named  Americana,  who  had  been  three  years  in  the 
mission,  looked  closely  at  the  new  comer  and  asked  her  name.  “Lubina” 
was  the  answer,  “O,  she  is  my  sister!”  exclaimed  Americana. 

The  mother  had  formerly  lived  near  Malange  and  had  given  her 
first  baby  to  the  mission. 

Bishop  Taylor,  in  a  still  cherished  letter  to  the  writer,  says:  ‘‘The 
first  nursery  we  opened  in  Angola,  about  4.00  miles  inland,  began  with  a 
little  five  year  old  boy  named  Chico.  He  accepted  Jesus  as  his  Saviour 
when  about  seven.  He  is  now  about  thirteen.  Chico  is  a  good  common 
school  English  scholar,  equally  good  in  Portuguese  and  his  native  Kim- 
bundu.  He  is  a  good  primary  school  teacher.  I  preach  through  him 
as  my  interpreter  when  visiting  his  nursery  home.  He  is  a  good  singer 
and  plays  the  organ  in  our  church  services.  He  is  the  author  of  thirteen 
of  the  good  Kimbundu  hymns  sung  in  our  assemblies  for  preaching.  We 
have  all  heard  of  the  diamonds  of  Africa.  Chico  is  one  of  them.  We 
could  utilize  a  million  stock  holders  of  one  million  each,  for  we  are  pros¬ 
pecting  and  working  immeasurable  mines  sparkling  with  diamonds  in  the 
dark  tunnels  from  which  my  miners  are  digging  them,  —  diamonds  to  be 
set  in  the  crown  of  the  King  of  Glory.  Who  is  the  King  of  Glory?  The 
Lord  of  Hosts  —  He  is  the  King  of  Glory.” 


& 


This  letter  was  written  in  1895. 

Perhaps  “Diana”  is  as  good  an  example  of  the  “polished  diamond” 
as  we  have.  She  was  a  little  Grebo  girl,  brought  to  the  United  States  by 
Miss  McNeil,  one  of  the  Taylor  missionaries,  when  three  years  old. 
Bishop  Taylor  took  her  to  the  General  Conference  in  1892,  and  before  she 
returned  to  Africa  she  had  earned  pennies  enough  by  her  singing  to 
purchase  her  freedom,  for  no  little  African  girl  is  really  free  until  her 
parents  receive  what  a  husband  would  pay  for  her. 

Later  she  came  again  to  America,  and  finally  in  1909  graduated  from 
the  University  of  South  California,  and,  as  Mrs.  Withey  wrote, 
“marched  in  her  cap  and  gown  and  took  her  degree  of  B.  A.  and  her 
diploma,  — a  beautiful  Christian  Girl.” 


Bishop  Taylor  died  in  Palo  Alto,  California,  May  19,  1902,  having 
just  passed  his  eighty-first  birthday. 

He  had  been  called  the  “Flaming  Torch”  by  the  Africans,  and  he 
was  indeed  like  the  torch  held  high  by  the  leader  through  their  dark 
forests. 


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So  when  Bishop  Taylor  closed  an  unbroken  itinerant  ministry 
of  fifty-five  glorious  years,  we  love  to  think  that  in  many  lands  there 
lingered  and  still  lingers,  a  radiance  which  makes  the  way  of  Christ 
plainer  and  easier  for  seeking  souls. 

Many  words  of  praise  were  spoken  after  his  death.  One  of  the 
church  papers  classed  him  with  Spurgeon,  Beecher,  Moody,  Miller  and 
Phillips  Brooks,  and  believed  that  as  a  world-wide  evangelist,  he  had 
no  equal  since  St.  Paul. 


